Embodiments relate, in general, to network acceleration, and, more particularly, to prefetching of simple message block (SMB) requests in communications systems.
HTTP prefetching typically involves pre-requesting content on behalf of a client or browser before any request for that content is actually generated. When content is prefetched, it may become possible to satisfy the request for that content locally (with regard to the client or browser), thereby negating the need to transmit the request and wait for the response. For example, in cases where there exists high latency between the client generating the request and the server which responds with the context requested, each negated request/response may avoid the penalty for such latency, thereby potentially reducing the total time required to satisfy the entire series of requests for the client. This may result in an accelerated end user experience.
One context in which latency may affect a user's experience is when interacting with files on a remote file server. In addition to actual file content traversing a network between the local client and the remote file server, other types of traffic may be involved in the file transactions. For example, certain applications communicate multiple simple message block (SMB) locking and unlocking requests for various purposes, including revision management, read/write authorization management, protection from multiple conflicting editors, etc.